Sabah, Sarawak voters in peninsula advised to change voting address - deputy minister

 

PARLIAMENT | Sabah and Sarawak voters who live and work in the peninsula will not be allowed to cast postal votes anytime soon.

De facto Deputy Law Minister Mas Ermieyati Samsudin indicated that amendments to election rules to facilitate this are not in the pipeline.

Instead, she said Borneo migrants are encouraged to become peninsula voters.

"For Sabah and Sarawak voters who live in Peninsular Malaysia, the Election Commission (EC) encourages them to request a change in voting constituency based on their latest place of residence to make it easier to vote during a general or by-election," Mas Ermieyati (above) told the Dewan Rakyat today.

She was responding to an oral question from Maria Chin Abdullah (Harapan-Petaling Jaya) on efforts to enfranchise Borneo voters in the peninsula and whether this would be done physically or virtually.

Wilfred Madius Tangau (Harapan-Tuaran) followed up by asking Mas Ermieyati specifically why the EC would not facilitate postal voting for Borneo migrants.

The deputy minister then reiterated her earlier answer and said that Sabah and Sarawak voters in the peninsula were not among those eligible for postal voting.

Allowing Sabah and Sarawak migrants to vote via post has been a constant demand by civil rights activists.

They argue that the cost of flights to return to Borneo to vote can be a deterrent for migrants to return to cast their ballots during an election. - Mkini